Seattle Times' methadone series wins APME award

NEW YORK 
The Seattle Times' investigation of the state of Washington's practice of steering people to methadone to reduce its Medicaid costs won a Public Service award from the Associated Press Media Editors association.

In a three-part series, the newspaper's "Methadone and the Politics of Pain" exposed how more than 2,000 people in the state between 2003 and 2011 fatally overdosed on methadone, a cheap and unpredictable painkiller that was routinely prescribed for people in state-subsidized health care. After the series was published in December, state Medicaid officials sent out an emergency advisory warning of the risk of methadone. The state also told doctors to prescribe methadone only as a last resort.

The judges in the 2012 APME Journalism Excellence Awards described the series, winner in the large newspaper category, as a "tremendous, groundbreaking work."

"It opened eyes and prompted swift action," they said. "This is public service journalism at its best."

In the 40,000- to 150,000-circulation category, The Patriot-News in Harrisburg, Pa., was honored for its coverage of the Penn State sex-abuse scandal involving former football coach Jerry Sandusky. "The Patriot-News was far out front in reporting one of the most explosive stories of 2011, and they did it at great peril to the newspaper's reputation in the state," the judges said.

The Virgin Islands Daily News won the small-circulation category for "License to Steal," a two-month investigation that exposed a con man who set up a credit union to steal from unsuspecting customers - and the lax oversight of such institutions by the Virgin Islands government.

The judges said the work "represents public service journalism of the highest order. The paper stepped in to protect the islands' most marginalized, vulnerable residents when their government failed them."

APME is an association of editors at newspapers, broadcast outlets and journalism educators and student leaders in the United States and Canada. APME works closely with The Associated Press to foster journalism excellence.

The awards will be presented at the group's annual conference Sept. 19-21 in Nashville, Tenn.

Judges did not participate in discussions or vote on their own newspapers' entries.

The APME board added two contests this year, one recognizing innovation in radio and television and the other for innovations by college students.

Three finalists were selected for APME's sixth annual Innovator of the Year Award: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for its "Empty Cradles" series about the death of children before their first birthday; the Arizona Republic, Phoenix, for the convergence of print, broadcast and online in its website, AZCentral; and The Oklahoman, Oklahoma City, for innovations throughout its website.